Home > Article Exchange integration in WorldShare ILL – What it means for library staff

Article Exchange integration in WorldShare ILL – What it means for library staff

Last week, Article Exchange workflows were integrated into the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan service. Let’s take a closer look at how these new workflows save time for your library’s ILL borrowing and lending activities.

One location for all ILL workflows. You can now upload and retrieve documents in Article Exchange from within the WorldShare ILL interface, without leaving the service to work in a separate window.

Homepage alerts eliminate the need for extra e-mails. The “AE Alert” field on your WorldShare ILL homepage clearly indicates the number of Article Exchange items that require your attention.

This means lenders no longer need use e-mail to inform borrowers about access to requested documents and borrowers can quickly see that documents are ready for their use. In fact, now that e-mails are unnecessary, the e-mail option has been removed from the workflow.

P.S. Previous WorldShare ILL “Tip of the Week” messages are available for your review on the OCLC website.

Here is an example of a borrower’s homepage, with the “AE Alert” field highlighted:

Fewer steps to share documents. Lenders now need only three clicks to upload documents in Article Exchange instead of the previous eight clicks. Just browse local files from within WorldShare ILL to select documents you wish to upload and click “Drop file.”

The URL and password for the Article Exchange item will automatically populate the AE ALERT field. Borrowers will retrieve records with the Article Exchange URL and password, which they can then send to requestors via e-mail, using the “Email to patron” button that displays automatically. “Email to patron” displays for requests from libraries that use WorldShare ILL, ILLiad or VDX.

When borrower and patron e-mail addresses are present, the service automatically enters these values plus citation data into an e-mail, along with information about how long the document will remain available in Article Exchange.